Waste wood reduction machine

ABSTRACT

Valuable scrap timber and other waste wood in forests and along roadways, heretofore not economically feasible to salvage, is harvested in an economical manner by a mobile wood waste reduction machine. The machine may be loaded by a shovel or front end loader and has coacting toothed rotors and wood breaker bars which reduce the harvested wood to uniform short lengths. Such wood may be utilized for making particle board or for hog fuel for boilers, sawmills and the like. The machine possesses power conveyor means to deliver the reduced wood to a transporting truck.

United States Patent [1 Cox [ Dec. 30, 1975 1 WASTE WOOD REDUCTION MACHINE [76] Inventor: Ernest P. Cox, PO. Box 154, L010,

Mont. 59847 [22] Filed: Aug. 15, I974 [21] Appl. No.: 497,667

[52] US. Cl. 24l/l0l.7; 241/221; 241/236;

144/218 [51] Int. Cl. B02]! 5/02; AOlD 55/00 [58] Field of Search 241/l0l.7, 73, 83, 84,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,355,021 10/1920 Waller 241/236 X 1,378,737 5/1921 Trautman 241/236 X 2,875,799 3/1959 Weems 241/235 X 3,822,042

7/1974 Roy 241/101.7X

3,850,375 11/1974 Ford 241/10l.7

Primary Examiner-Donald R. Schran Assistant Examiner-W. D. Bray Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Lawrence L. Colbert 5? ABSTRACT Valuable scrap timber and other waste wood in forests and along roadways, heretofore not economically feasible to salvage, is harvested in an economical manner by a mobile wood waste reduction machine. The machine may be loaded by a shovel or front end loader and has coacting toothed rotors and wood breaker bars which reduce the harvested wood to uniform short lengths. Such wood may be utilized for making particle board or for hog fuel for boilers, sawmills and the like. The machine possesses power conveyor means to deliver the reduced wood to a transporting truck.

4 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures Sheet 1 of 2 US. Pawm Dec. 30, 1975 H IHI US. Patent Dec. 30, 1975 Sheet2of2 3,929,294

WASTE wooD REDUCTION MACHINE BACKGROUND ()F THE INVENTION The invention has been created to satisfy a drastic need for salvaging millions of tons of usable waste wood in forests and along roads in logging country. It has never been economically feasible in the past, to salvage timber scrap produced by logging operations and other small down timber, windfalls andthe like along roadways due to a lack of equipment to economically harvest and reduce such wood waste to usable size and condition. The existence of unused wood waste of the mentioned types creates a serious fire hazardin wide areas of the nation further endangering scarce BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING FIGURES FIG. 1 is a side elevation of awood waste machine embodying the invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view thereof.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged transverse vertical section taken on line 33 of FIG. 1. 1

FIG. 4 is a similar section taken on line 44 of FIG.

reduction DETAILED DESCRIPTfON Referring to the drawings in detail, wherein like nu merals designate like parts, the numeral designates a main wheeled frame or bed having a forward draft tongue 11 adapted for coupling to a tractor or other towing vehicle. In some instances, the portable machine of the invention could be made self-propelled with a suitable drivers compartment.

Mounted on and suitably secured to the bed 10 is a sturdy floor frame 12 having fixed uprights 13 at the opposite sides thereof in spaced relation, rigidly connected near their midpoints by longitudinal horizontal brace bars 14.

The uprights 13 collectively support a wide mouth open top rectangular hopper 15 adapted to receive large quantities of wood waste along roadways or around logging operations from a conventional front end loader or like equipment, not shown. The wood recovered from the ground by the loader is simply dumped into the top of the hopper 15 during the operation of the machine which can be towed or propelled to any desirable location.

The machine embodies powerful wood waste reducing means within the top portion of the hopper 15 comprising plural spaced parallel longitudinally extending rotor shafts 16, preferably four in number, and having their rotational axes lying in a common horizontal plane, FIG. 3. Each of these shafts carries a plurality of equidistantly spaced rotor heads 17, each having a central hub 18 fast on the shaft 16 and preferably four equidistantly spaced tapered and longitudinally curved wood reduction teeth 19, whose tips face in the direction of movement caused by rotation of the shaft 16. it may be noted in FIG. 3 that the teeth 19 of one pair of rotor heads 17 face oppositely to the teeth of the other .A plurality of spaced-parallel transversely extending wood'breaker bars or plates 20' extend at right angles to the shafts 16 and have their opposite ends rigidly joined to the side walls of hopper 15. The top edges 21 of the breaker plates are preferably beveled, as indicated, and

are arranged in a common horizontal plane substantially belowthe high-point in the path of movement of the'rotating teeth 19, F1633. .As shown in FIG. 2, the breaker plates are intervened with pairs of the rotor heads 17 on the several shafts 16 so that a pair of such heads on each shaft'may cooperate with one breaker plate in the reduction of waste wood to the desired approximately uniform lengths, as will be further described.

Meansare provided to turn the rotor shafts 16 in unison and in desired directions. This means comprises an engine or primemover 22 mounted on a forward platform 23 of the machine and coupled with a speed reducer 24 on ;the same platform, the output shaft of the latter turning a gear 25 which meshes with a second gear 26 on a short parallel countershaft 27. As best shown in FIG. 4, the gear 25 and the shaft 28 on which it is mounted drives a sprocket gear train 29 which causes a pair of the shafts 16 to turn clockwise, as indicated by the arrows in-FIG. 3. The teeth 19 of the rotorheads 17 on this pair of shafts 16 are directed to force waste wood delivered into the top of the hopper 1'5 downwardly against the .top edges 21 of breaker plates 20.

The other gear 26 and thecountershaft 27 drive a second sprocket gear train 30 in such a manner that the other pair of rotor shafts l6 and their toothed heads 17 turn oppositely to the last-named pair, or counterclockwise, as shown in FIG. 3. All of the curved teeth 19 are thus arranged to force the wood inwardly and downwardly on the breaker bars 20 in the wood reduction process.

Additional belt gearing 31 coupled to and driven by shaft 28 operates a small electric generator 32 on the floor 12 of the machine, whose power is utilized to drive a pair of electric conveyor drive motors 33 and 34, as shown.

Sturdy support bearings 35 for the rotor shafts 16 are securely mounted on the breaker plates 20 and additional shaft end bearings 36 are also provided on the opposite ends of the machine frame structure.

Preferably, a cowling structure 37 is provided on the machine to enclose the engine 22 and associated gearmg.

lmmediately below the outlet 38 of hopper 15, where reduced wood is discharged after being acted on by the rotor heads 17 and breakers bars 20, is a horizontal conveyor 39 driven by gearing 40 from the electric motor 33. This horizontal conveyor delivers the reduced wood to a second upwardly inclined conveyor 41 driven by motor 34 which delivers the reduced wood into a suitable truck for transporting the wood to any desired location of use.

In the operation of the machine, the waste wood is delivered by a shovel loader or similar equipment into the top of hopper 15 and directly onto the wood reduction apparatus composed of the shafts 16 and toothed heads 17. Preferably, the shafts 16 revolve in unison at a speed of about RPM and the sturdy teeth 19 force the waste wooddownwardly onto the breaker bars which will break up the wood into relatively uniform lengths of about three feetin a preferred embodiment of the invention. In this connection, it should be understood that the dimensions of the machine may be varied to meet local conditions, and the number and spacing of the rotor shafts l6 and breaker bars 20 may also be varied within the scope of the invention..-

In any case, however, the machine will travel along a road or in any area having large quantities of usable waste wood on the ground and will quickly reduce this waste wood to a usable condition with economy. Fire hazards will be eliminated and the unsightly debris clogging forests and some roadways will be removed and vast quantities of wood heretofore thought to be unusable will be salvaged and used to substantially alleviate the current wood shortage.

In light of the above description, it is believed that the purposes and advantages of the invention will now be apparent to those skilled in the art.

It is to be understood that the form of the invention herewith shown and described is to be taken as a preferred example of the same, and that various changes in the shape, size and arrangement of parts may be resorted to, without departing from the spirit of the invention or scope of the subjoined claims.

I claim: I

l. A waste wood reduction machine comprising a wheeled support, an open top hopper on the wheeled support, plural laterally spaced parallel wood reduction rotor shafts positioned in the upper portion of the hopper and extending longitudinally across the hopper from front to back thereof in relation to the path of movement of the wheeled support, plural axially spaced toothed wood reduction rotor heads on said shafts and turning therewith with the teeth of the rotor heads revolving in planes transverse to the axes of said rotor shafts, plural spaced parallel breaker bars in the upper portion of the hopper substantially at right angles to the axes of the rotor shafts and across said path of movement and disposed in planes parallel to said planes of revolution of said teeth, said plural breaker bars being continuous across said hopper and rotor shafts and having their ends supportively anchored to opposite sides of the hopper, said rotor shafts intersecting and extending through the breaker bars, bearing means for the rotor shafts on the breaker bars and fore and aft ends of the hopper, and power means on said machine drivingly connected with the rotor shafts to turn them in unison, said toothed wood reduction rotor heads intervened between pairs of said breaker bars.

2. The structure of claim 1, and power conveyor means on the machine below the hopper and receiving reduced length wood from the bottom of the hopper, the hopper having a bottom outlet adjacent the conveyor means.

3. The structure of claim 1, and the top edges of the breaker bars being sharpened and lying in a common plane somewhat below the tops of the circular paths of movement of the teeth on said rotor heads.

4. The structure of claim 3, and the rotor heads on adjacent rotor shafts being axially staggered and said teeth being pointed and individually curved forwardly in relation to the circular paths of movement of the teeth, whereby the teeth will draw waste wood downwardly against said breaker bars. 

1. A waste wood reduction machine comprising a wheeled support, an open top hopper on the wheeled support, plural laterally spaced parallel wood reduction rotor shafts positioned in the upper portion of the hopper and extending longitudinally across the hopper from front to back thereof in relation to the path of movement of the wheeled support, plural axially spaced toothed wood reduction rotor heads on said shafts and turning therewith with the teeth of the rotor heads revolving in planes transverse to the axes of said rotor shafts, plural spaced parallel breaker bars in the upper portion of the hopper substantially at right angles to the axes of the rotor shafts and across said path of movement and disposed in planes parallel to said planes of revolution of said teeth, said plural breaker bars being continuous across said hopper and rotor shafts and having their ends supportively anchored to opposite sides of the hopper, said rotor shafts intersecting and extending through the breaker bars, bearing means for the rotor shafts on the breaker bars and fore and aft ends of the hopper, and power means on said machine drivingly connected with the rotor shafts to turn them in unison, said toothed wood reduction rotor heads intervened between pairs of said breaker bars.
 2. The structure of claim 1, and power conveyor means on the machine below the hopper and receiving reduced length wood from the bottom of the hopper, the hopper having a bottom outlet adjacent the conveyor means.
 3. The structure of claim 1, and the top edges of the breaker bars being sharpened and lying in a common plane somewhat below the tops of the circular paths of movement of the teeth on said rotor heads.
 4. The structure of claim 3, and the rotor heads on adjacent rotor shafts being axially staggered and said teeth being pointed and individually curved forwardly in relation to the circular paths of movement of the teeth, whereby the teeth will draw waste wood downwardly against said breaker bars. 